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Author: 


Parsons,  Frank 


Title: 


The  drift  of  our  time 


Place: 


Chicago 


Date: 


[1 899] 


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•  ••  The  drift  of  our  time,  by  •••  Freuik  Parsons 

Chicago,  Kerr  tl899j 
cover-title,  16  p.   (Unity  library,  no,  101) 


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THE    DRIFT 
OF  OUR  TIME 


BY 


Prof.  Frank  Parsons 


1 1  * 


Unity  Library,  No.  loi  December  15,  1899  Monthly,  $3.00  a  year 

Entered  at  the  postoffice,  Chicago,  as  second-class  matter 


r« 


Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Company,  Publishers 

56  Fifth  Avenue,  Chicago 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME 


BY  PROF.   FRANK  PARSONS. 


Life  consists  of  relations,  animate  and  inanimate — 
relations  with  material  things,  and  relations  with  things 
that  live.  For  man  the  most  important  relations  are 
not  those  which  bind  him  to  the  material  universe,  nor 
those  which  pertain  to  other  species  of  living  things, 
but  those  which  subsist  between  the  members  of  the 
human  family— it  is  the  human  relations  that  chiefly 
control  the  lives  of  men  and  make  them  true  or  false, 
kind  or  cruel,  just  or  unjust,  good  or  bad,  happy  or 
miserable;  it  is  the  human  relations,  therefore,  to^ 
which  we  must  give  the  most  careful  attention  if  we^ 
seek  the  elevation  of  mankind. 

These  human  relations  fall  naturally  into  five  great 
groups,  which  we  may  call  the  relations  of  Severance, 
Conflict,  Mastery,  Partnership  and  Devotion.  The 
first  is  the  relation  of  separation,  isolation,  disunion, 
disconnection,  unassociation ;  the  others  are  relations 
of  contact  and  association.     Conflict  and  Mastery  aro 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


y 


forms  of  antagonism,  Partnership  and  Devotion  aro 
forms  of  co-operation. 

Everywhere  we  find  abundant  illustrations  of  these 
five  relations.     The  solitary  savage  wandering  in  the 
woods  of  Borneo,  the  hermit  in  his  cave,  the  monk  in 
his  monastery  shut  from  the  active  world,  the  pioneer, 
too  far  beyond  the  line  of  settlement  to  hold  communi- 
cation with  his  fellows,  nations  whose  remoteness  or 
unlikeness  keeps  them  out  of  touch,  show  us  severance 
in  various  phases  and   degrees.      Similar  phenomena 
exist  in  the  world  of  mind  and  heart.     The  thoughts 
and  emotions  of  men  may  sever  them  no  less  effec- 
tually than  seas  and  continents,  although  they  dwell 
beneath  one  roof  and  eat  at  one  family  table. 

Conflict  is  everywhere.     Where  man  comes  into  his- 
tory's ground  the  air  is  full  of  javelins  and  arrows, 
and,  as  the  glance  runs  down  the  centuries,  blazing 
armor,  glittering  steel  and  marching  hosts  fill  up  the 
years.'   Across  the  water,  warfare  is  raging  now,  and 
millions  of  armed  men  are  waiting  the  word  that  any 
day  may  set  the  armies  of  all  Europe  in  motion.     The 
roar  of  musketry  and  the  boom  of  cannon  has  scarcely 
died  from  our  ears,  the  smoke  of  battle  scarcely  lifted 
from  our  skies.     Conflict  is  with  us  still,  in  market  and 
court-room  and  church,  in  strike  and  election,  in  Con- 
gress  and  State  House  and  Council  Hall,  wherever  a 
buyer  or  seller  of  labor  or  goods  is  seeking  to  over 
reach  the  other,  wherever  determined  men  are  pushing 


\ 


V   ; 


,1. 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME.  3 

or  maintaining  a  selfish  purpose  against  the    active 
opposition-  of  their  fellows. 

Mastery,  too,  is  everywhere— conflict  crystallized  into 
conquest  and  developing  new  conflicts  for  the  future. 
Chief,  general,  king,  political  boss,  and  military  des- 
pot,  priest,  capitalist,  corporation  manager,  princes  of 
market  and  factory,  such  are  some  of  the  masters  who 
control  the  world.     Wherever  a  life  is  controlled  by 
another  for  the  primary  benefit  of  the  controller,  the 
relation  of  master  and   slave    exists.       It  makes  no 
difference   in   the    essential    nature    of    the    relation 
whether  you  buy  a  whole  life  at  once,  as  the  Southern 
planter  did  before  the  war,  or  buy  the  life  a  little  at  a 
time  on  the  installment  plan,  a  day,  a  week,  a  month, 
a  year  at  a  sale,  as  in  our  Northern  factories  today— it 
is  the  purchase  of  manhood,  the  bargain  for  mastery 
just  the   same,  and  whether  it  be  for  fifty  years  at 
once,     or    day    by    day     for    fifty    years,    with    the 
whip  of  want  to    compel  the  transfer  each  morning 
anew,  is  merely  a  matter  of  degree.     The  right  to 
political   freedom  even  may  fail  to  prevent  enslave- 
ment—so long  as  the  masters  make  their  servants  vote 
as  they  bid,  the  ballots  in  truth  belong  to  the  masters. 
Freedom  is  indivisible.     If  another  is  your  master  in 
any  essential  department  of  life,  he  is  your  master  in 
all.     Power  to  control  your  supply  of  air  or  water  or 
food  is  power  to  control  you.     The  man  who  is  depen- 
dent on  the  arbitrary  will  of  another,  for  the  oppor- 


4  THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 

tunity  to  make  a  living,  is  not  free.  The  man  who 
controls  you  religiously  can  govern  you  politically 
and  industrially  if  he  will.  The  man  who  controls  you 
politically  can  rule  you  industrially  and  religiously  if 
he  so  desires.  And  the  man  who  controls  you  indus- 
trially is  your  master  politically,  religiously  and 
socially.  If  several  controls  exist  and  clash,  it  is  a 
.  battle  of  the  masters,  in  which  perhaps  the  slave  may 
win  his  freedom  from  them  all. 

Partnership  also  is  a  universal  relation.  Savages 
hunt  together  and  divide  the  spoils.  Families  co- 
operate for  the  common  good.  Merchants,  artisans 
and  professional  men  combine  for  mutual  help.  A 
nation  is  a  partnership  for  defense  against  aggression 
from  without  or  from  within.  Protestantism  is  part- 
nership in  religion— public  works,  co-operative  indus- 
tries, profit-sharing  enterprises,  even  the  trusts  and 
combines  are  instances  of  partnership  in  different 
stages  of  development. 

Finally,  devotion  is  found  wherever  humanity 
dwells,  and  whether  it  be  the  devotion  of  lovers  to 
each  other,  of  parents  to  their  children,  of  martyrs  to 
their  faith,  of  patriots  to  their  countr}',  of  inventors 
to  their  great  conceptions,  of  authors  and  scientists 
to  the  search  for  truth,  of  poets  and  musicians  to  the 
creation  of  beauty,  of  philosophers  and  philanthropists 
to  their  high  ideals,  the  book  of  life  is  rich  with  the 
pages  of  its  history. 


f 


i 


t 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME.  5 

If  we  examine  the  matter  closely,  we  find  a  relation 
among  these  relations.  The  first  three  groups  are  of 
a  low  order.  The  last  two  are  of  a  high  order. 
Severance  lacks  the  stimulus  and  movement  that 
characterize  even  the  lowest  forms  of  contact 
and  association.  Antagonism  means  destruction, 
waste,  debasement.  Mastery  means  oppression, 
injustice,  arrogance,  subjection,  degradation.  On  the 
other  hand,  Partnership  embodies  the  principles  of 
justice,  economy,  harmony  and  mutual  help;  while 
Devotion  is  the  outward  form  of  love.  In  the  ideal 
society,  severance,  conflict  and  mastery  must  cease, 
equity  and  common  sense  demand  that  there  shall  be 
mo  relation  of  a  lower  order  than  partnership  or 
co-operation  on  the  plane  of  justice,  and  when  love  at 
last  is  sovereign,  no  relation  below  that  of  devotion 
will  be. tolerated. 

There  is  a  steady  tendency  of  the  lower  forms  of 
relation  to  pass  into  the  higher.  Institutions  and  emo- 
tions have  their  laws  of  selection  and  survival,  as  well 
as  individuals  and  races.  As  population  increases, 
the  severance  of  distance  gives  way  to  contact  in 
conflict  or  in  union.  Conflict  merges  into  mastery  or 
partnership  or  devotion.  Mastery  is  almost  as  unstable 
as  conflict — there  is  conflict  in  its  heart,  unless  the 
mind  of  the  slave  is  dead  and  the  soul  of  the  master 
forever  asleep.  It  builds  upon  rebellion's  soil;  there 
is  no  rest,  no  permanence,  no  safety  till   mastery  is 


\ 


I 


6  THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 

changed  to  partnership  or  devotion;  and  when  once 
we  have  partnership,  devotion  is  only  a  question  of 
time  for  growing  sympathy  to  change  the  crude  justice 
that  is  satisfied  with  the  absence  of  aggression  into  the 
higher  justice  we  call  love,  that  is  satisfied  only  by 
the  gift  of  our  all  for  others. 

In  every  department  of  life,  with  a  wave-like  motion, 
through  the  tangled  mass  of  retrogressions  and  ad- 
vances, a  general  drift  toward  the  nobler  relations  is 
clearly  visible,  and  each  new  century  accelerates  the 
progress  toward  the  supremacy  of  partnership  and 
devotion,  the  rule  of  justice  and  sympathy,  the  sov- 

ereignty  of  love. 

Government  may  be  a  mastery,  a  partnership,  a 
devotion  or  a  mixture.  So  far  as  the  ruler  uses  his 
power  for  his  own  selfish  purposes,  it  is  a  mastery. 
So  far  as  he  acts  as  an  honest  agent  of  those  he 
governs,  it  is  a  partnership  in  which  the  partners  to 
some  extent  entrust  to  one  or  more  of  their  number 
the  management  and  direction  of  the  common  busi- 
ness, for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned.  So  far  as  the 
ruler  gives  himself  to  the  service  of  the  people  in  sym- 
pathy and  love,  it  is  a  devotion.  The  government  of 
Napoleon  was  a  mastery.  The  government  of  Lincoln 
was  a  devotion. 

When  men  first  came  together  for  aggression  or 
defense,  there  was  little  control  but  that  of  individual 
strength   and   cunning.      Recognized  leadership  and 


\ 


<<> 


111 


THi:  D?aFT  OF  OUR  TIME.  7 

due  subordination  were  sure  to  follow  because  they 
increased  the  efficiency  of  the  union.  The  leaders, 
once  firm  in  their  seats,  abused  their  power,  and  when 
the  people  became  aware  of  this  and  were  wise  enough 
to  understand  the  remedy,  and  brave  enough  to  apply 
it,  democracy  was  the  result. 

In  religion  similar  changes  have  been  wrought.  A 
few  in  sympathy  worshiped  together.  Some  man  of 
peculiar  power  became  the  leader.  The  groups  grew 
larger,  the  leaders  more  powerfid.  Then  they  abused 
their  trust.  A  few  in  the  North  rebelled,  and  Luther 
established  democracy  in  religion. 

In  industry  the  same  great  facts  appear.  Every- 
where there  is  a  tendency  for  the  first  simple  unde- 
fined association  to  become  a  mastery,  which  advancing 
civilization  inevitably  transforms  into  a  partnership  or 
democracy,  and  will  finally  transform  into  a  devotion. 
At  first  men  worked  alone.  Then,  finding  out  the 
power  of  union,  they  worked  in  groups— partnerships, 
factories,  corporations,  syndicates,  trusts,  combina- 
tions of  greater  and  greater  magnitude.  At  every  step 
the  organization  must  have  management,  and  chiefs, 
and  monarchs  of  market  and  mine,  railroads  and 
manufactures  came  into  being.  These  leaders  have 
perverted  their  power  to  their  own  selfish  purposes, 
just  as  the  leaders  of  religious  and  political  combina- 
tions formerly  did.  The  people  are  awakening  to  this 
fact,  and  soon  they  will  write   their  industrial  consti- 


8 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


\ 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


tiations  and  hold  the  rulers  of  wealth  responsible  as 
they  already  do  the  rulers  of  war.  Organization, 
leadership,  despotism,  democracy — that  has  been  the 
history  of  religion  and  politics,  and  it  will  be  the 
history  of  industry  also.  The  aristocracy  of  the  priest- 
hood is  broken ;  the  aristocracy  of  birth  is  dead ;  but 
the  aristocracy  of  the  dollar  is  in  the  meridian  of  its 
splendor.  Political  power  no  longer  descends  to  the 
worthless  son  of  a  trusted  ruler.  But  the  mighty  power 
of  wealth,  the  irresponsible  control  of  unnumbered  mill- 
ions, the  arbitrary  government  of  human  interests 
vaster  than  the  political  affairs  of  the  greatest  states 
— these  still  descend  from  father  to  son,  as  kingly 
power  did  in  less  enlightened  times.  The  aristocracy 
of  wealth  must  follow  the  aristocracy  of  birth.  There 
is  one  more  despotism  to  demolish,  one  more  slavery 
to  abolish.  There  is  one  more  republic  to  be  built,  one 
more  proclamation  of  emancipation  to  be  written. 
Our  fathers  gave  us  a  political  republic.  We  must 
give  our  children  an  industrial  republic. 

Co-operation  has  brought  suit  in  ejectment  against 
the  competitive  system  for  possession  of  the  field  of 
civilization.  The  case  is  on  trial  at  the  bar  of  human 
progress.  Common  Sense  and  Love  are  counsel  foi 
co-operation.  Greed,  Ignorance,  Prejudice,  and 
Primeval  Combativeness  defend  the  competitive  sys- 
tem. The  ultimate  issue  cannot  be  doubted.  The 
competitive  system  means    antagonism,   conflict    and 


mastery,  relations  condemned  by  reason,  religion  and 
common  sense,  and  doomed  by  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion. Co-operation  means  partnership  and  devotion, 
relations  commended  by  reason,  religion  and  common 
sense,  and  the  inevitable  goal  of  advancing  civilization. 
Oppressed  and  outraged  manhood  is  just  as  sure  to 
rebel  against  industrial  despotism  and  try  to  establish 
an  industrial  democracy,  an  industrial  government  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  and  for  the  people,  as  the 
patriots  of  '76  were  sure  to  rise  against  the  mastery  of 
England.  Industrial  partnership  will  come  from  above 
downward  and  from  below  upward — the  public  absorp- 
tion of  monopolies  and  the  growth  of  profit  sharing 
and  co-operative  enterprise  with  larger  and  larger 
federations  of  public  and  private  co-operative  groups 
will  finally  expel  antagonism  and  mastery  from  labor's 
world.  Even  the  trusts  and  combines  help.  A  trust 
is  only  a  partnership  internally  considered.  It  is  of  no 
use  to  make  laws  to  destroy  them — they  exist  in  obedi- 
ence to  a  law  far  higher  than  any  that  Congress  can 
make — the  law  of  industrial  gravitation — strength  and 
economy  lies  in  union.  A  trust  is  a  very  good  thing 
for  those  on  the  inside.  Let  the  people  inside,  and  let 
US  not  be  satisfied  with  a  match  trust,  an  oil  trust,  a 
sugar  trust,  and  a  steel  trust,  but  let  us  have  a  world  trust 
for  the  production  of  manhood  and  human  happiness. 
It  will  come  whether  we  lift  a  finger  to  help  it  or 
not.     Human  nature  is  plastic  and  yields  to  pressure. 


lO 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


Antagonistic    forces  tend  to  destroy   each  other  and 
leave  only  those   that  can   act  together   in  harmony. 
In  the  long  run,  nature  represses   evil  by  entailing 
painful  consequences  on  it,  and  encourages  good  by 
following  it  with  pleasant  results.     Action  goes  where 
resistance  is  least  and  the  harvest  of    happiness  is 
greatest.     Right  conduct  is  simply  a  matter  of  fore- 
sight, common  sense  and  self-control.     The  wisdom  of 
righteousness  is  a  demonstrable  certainty.     Imagina- 
tion is  the  basis  of  sympathy  and  sympathy  is  the 
basis  of  morality.     Self-interest,  rightly  judged,  will 
lead  to  goodness,   to  save  remorse   and  retribution.. 
Egoism  married  to  wisdom  gives  birth  to  altruism— the 
savage,  under  Nature's  training,  will,  in  time,  become 

the  angel. 

Automatic    evolution  will    at    last    bring    man    to 
mutualism,  if  the  world  continues  long  enough  to  roll 
unharmed  in    median  temperatures  around  the  sun. 
But  we  can  hasten  the  movement  greatly  by  intelligent 
selection,  which  is  as  far  superior  to  automatic  selection 
in  the  development  of    nobler    character  and  better 
institutions,  as  it  is  in  the  development  of  finer  horses, 
cattle,  dogs  and  sheep.     We  must  go  to  the  sources  of 
good  and  evil,  pull  up  the  weeds,  abolish  the  germs  of 
evil  and  nourish  the  tender  growths  of  good.    Take  the 
children  out  of  the  slums.     Guard  the  unborn  against 
a  criminal,  diseased  or  pauper  parentage.     Put  crimi- 
nals and  vicious  persons  where  they  cannot  harm  their 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


XI 


r 


V 


r 


■•i 


fellow  men,  but  may  be  trained  to  useful  lives,  and 
have  their  freedom  once  again  when  long  good  con- 
duct has  rebutted  the  presumption  from  their  former 
badness  that  they  would  do  wrong  if  not  restrained  of 
their  liberty.     Let  us  squeeze  the  last  black  drop  of 
savage  blood  out  of  humanity's  veins.     Let  us  recog- 
nize the  true  relations  of  sin,  and  not  give  honor  to  the 
big  transgressor  while  we  crush  the  little  one.     Let  us 
turn  our  boys  from  the  lust  for  gold,  to  intellectual  and 
spiritual  attainments,  and  the  service  of  mankind  as 
the  goal  of  their  ambitions.     Let  us  strive  to  destroy 
the  commercialization  of  labor-the  purchase  of  man- 
hood as  a  commodity.     The  question  with  employers 
ought  to  be,  "How  much  can  I  afford  to  pay?"  instead 
of.  "How  little  can  I  get  that  labor  for?"    When  mas- 
ters ask,  "How  would  I  wish  my  daughter  treated  if 
she  were  this  working-girl?  What  wages  would  I  wish 
this  work  to  command  if  I  myself,  or  my  son,  were 
doing  it?"    And  Capital  says,  "I  will  pay  all  I  can  and 
clear  myself.     New  capital  shall  come  from  the  sav- 
ings of  labor."     Then  partnership  and  brotherhood 
will  be  in  sight.     A  little  further  on,  the  wages  system 
and  industrial  slavery  will  go,  and  leave  the  world  to 
profit  sharing  and  industrial  self-government— mastery 
will  give  place  to  partnership.     The  workers  will  see 
that  the  change  is  made  in  time,  but  employers,  if  they 
will,  can  smooth  and  shorten  the  path  from  competi- 
tion to  co-operation.     Let  us  change  our  institutions 


13 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


to  a  purer  type,  for  better  government,  and  fairer 
diffusion  of  wealth  and  power  and  opportunity.  In- 
stitutions and  character  react  upon  each  other;  we 
must  labor  for  them  both,  or,  rather,  we  must  labor  to 
improve  our  institutions,  as  one  of  the  strongest  means 
of  improving  our  manhood.  And  finally,  above  all 
else,  let  each  strive  to  mold  himself  to  the  mutualistic 
character,  so  that  the  Golden  Rule  may  be  an  instinct 
with  him,  so  that  his  every  relation,  so  far  as  condi- 
tions can  be  controlled  by  him,  shall  be  a  devotion,  a 
partnership  with  love  at  the  heart  of  it,  a  co-operation 
of  the  highest  order,  a  mutualism  whose  motive  is  the , 
deepest  philosophy,  and  the  purest  emotion. 

Imagine  a  body  of  colonists  settling  on  a  fertile 
island  and  finding  plants  and  animals  of  an  injurious 
nature  with  others  of  a  beneficial  sort.  They  would 
naturally  make  a  definite  and  determined  effort  to  rid 
the  island  of  poisonous  plants  and  dangerous  animals, 
pull  up  and  destroy  the  weeds,  cut  down  the  useless 
trees,  and  exterminate  the  lions,  tigers,  wolves,  rattle- 
snakes, tarantulas,  or  whatever  pests  infested  the 
country,  while  they  would  nourish,  protect  and  develop 
the  animals  that  were  useful  in  their  domestic 
economy,  and  plant  the  seeds  of  valuable  fruits,  grains, 
and  vegetables,  aiding  their  growth  with  diligent  care. 
If  they  were  wise  they  would  give  no  less  attention  to 
the  removal  of  injurious  elements  and  the  cultivation 
of  beneficent  ones,  in  their  characters,  institutions  and 


\ 


«  M 


'V 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


t$ 


social  relations.  The  spirit  of  a  wolf  or  anaconda  in  a 
man  is  far  more  harmful  than  in  its  appropriate  form. 
And  a  noble  man  is  worth  far  more  than  a  well-bred 
horse  or  a  Jersey  cow,  an  orchard  of  apples,  or  a  field 
of  wheat.  A  false  relation  debases  and  poisons  the 
whole  community,  while  human  relations  of  higher 
order  translate  the  earth  into  heaven.  *'The  Kindom 
.of  Heaven  is  within  you,"  for  the  power  of  love  is 
within  you,  and  that,  if  you  put  it  into  your  lives,  will 
make  this  world  a  heaven. 

Man  has  colonized  this  planet,  and  century  after 
century,  for  thousands  of  years,  he  has  striven  to  mold 
to  his  use  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  globe.     He  has 
given  some  attention  also  to  molding  himself  and  his 
relationships.      He  made  a  splendid  move  when  he 
nationalized  and  democratized  defence  and  the  admin- 
istration of  justice.       He  will  make  another    grand 
advance  when  he  nationalizes  and  democratizes  indus- 
try.    In  the  earliest  times,  when  each  one  defended 
himself  unaided,  it  took  the  whole  life  of  a  man  for 
warfare  and  the  training  and  preparation  it  required. 
^But  after  a  while  men  said:  ** There's  a  better  way 
than  this.     We'll  form  ourselves  into  a  nation,   and 
guarantee  safety  to  every  man,  and  put  the  whole 
power  of  the  state  behind  the  promise.     Then  a  few 
men  with  guns  will  be  able  to  keep  the  peace  for  all, 
and  a  vast  amount  of  vigor  and  time  will  be  saved. " 
And  they  did,  and  the  energy  thereby  released  has 


y 


14 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


/ 


developed  the  commerce  and  science  of  modem  times. 
The  material  civilization  of  the  nineteenth  century  is 
the  result  of  the  nationalization  of  defence,  and  the 
equalization  of  safety.  So  it  will  be  with  the  national- 
ization of  industry  and  the  equalization  of  security 
from  hunger  and  cold;  the  larger  part  of  the  time  and 
attention  devoted  to  getting  material  wealth  will  be 
given  to  higher  pursuits,  and  the  twentieth  century 
may  see  a  civilization  of  the  soul,  a  spiritual  develop- 
ment as  magnificent  as  the  material  advancement  of 
the  nineteenth. 

There  are  many  indications  of  the  new  development. 
A  multitude  of  papers  are  urging  the  claims  of  labor 
to  partnership  in  industry.  Hundreds  of  leading  men 
are  in  sympathy  with  the  cause.  The  wealthy  them- 
selves, for  the  most  part,  desire  a  system  that  will 
lead  to  a  more  equitable  distribution  of  wealth  and 
opportunity.  Labor  is  organizing  to  demand  the 
change;  political  parties  are  swinging  into  line;  public 
ownership  is  in  the  air,  and  the  '*  Brotherhood  of  the 
Co-operative  Commonwealth"  is  rapidly  developing. 

Beyond  and  beneath  all  this  is  the  growth  of  sym- 
pathy,* the  admiration  for  devotion  to  humanity,  the 


♦  Since  this  lecture  was  written  a  new  proof  of  the  growing  P°^«J.  °f.f/SP^*iiy 
hasapoeared  in  the  war  forCuban  independence.    We  know  so  well  the  benefits 
5f^l?t^cal  freedom  and  our  sympathy  with  others  who  are  st^"^J^^;?/  J^J^^  ^  J2 
er^t  that  we  are  willing  to  fieht.  if  need  be.  that  another  people,  who  j?ive 
promise  of  TbiKty  to  learS  the  art  cf  self  government  *«fyf"Jgi>„^„%^i?;^°g 
Sf  liberty  we  valiie  so  highly  for  ourselves     Some  peoole  »"  Eu'-ope  seem  to 
think  it  is  Inst  for  territory  that  moves  America  b"*  ^»'7,""j;;^/,^_  !5d7^^^^ 
that  from  the  truth  that  the  great  nia^sof  our  people  would  regard  the  «^^^ 
of  Cuba  as  an  undesirable  burden.    Commercial  interests  ^av^lmd  some  part 
and  the  Maine  has  bad  a  stroug  influer.ce  in  causing  intervention;  but  only  as 


V 


V  > 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


15 


deepening  hold  of  love  upon  the  public  and  private 
life  of  the  people.     A  little  thing  sometimes  reveals 
the  future.     Now  it  is  a  nation  pouring  out  its  wealth 
to  aid  the  victims  of  a  conflagration,  flooa  or  other 
dire  catastrophe,  and  then  it  is  a  breeze  from  Scot- 
land   lifting  the   curtain  to  disclose  the  spirit  of  the 
new'  time.     The  grand  devotion  of  the  Doctor  of  the 
Old  School  is  one  of  the  richest  passages  in  modern 
literature;  indeed  the  whole  book,   with  its  Domsie 
and  Drumsheugh,  and  Burnbrae,  and  Marget,  is  full 
of  the  finest  spirit,  and  its  wonderful  success,  its  un- 
paralleled  popularity,  means  much,  for  where  our  ideals 
are   we  strive  to  climb.     Mankind  will  some  day  find 
the  highest  happiness  in  the  service  of  each  others- 
mastery,  conflict,  unjust  agreements,   political  frauds 
and  ostentatious  wealth  will  become  as  repugnant  as 
highway  robbery  is  today;  morality  will  become  m- 
stinctive,  natural  as  reflex  motion,  and  men  will  desire 
wealth  merely  as  a  means  of  fitting  themselves  for  the 
highest  and  fullest  intellectual  and  spiritual  activities 
of  which  they  are  capable,  and  ask  for  power  simply 
to  serve  their  fellownien. 

The  eighteenth  century,  with  its  Arkwrights  and 
Whitneys,  Watts  and  Fultons,  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  splendid  mater ial^evelopn^^ 

hurls  the  shell  from  the  cannon's  «outh— and  u  is  nui  j        ^gio^e 


x6 


THE  DRIFT  OF  OUR  TIME. 


wliicn  we  live.    The  nineteentli  century,  with  its  Dar- 
win,   Spencer,    Huxley,    Helmholtz,    Davy,    Faraday, 
Rumford,    Goethe,    Herschel,    Agassiz,   Lyell   and   a 
host  of  others,  has  laid  the  comer-stone  of  the  temple 
of  knowledge.       The  twentieth  century  must  build  a 
home  for  the  soul.     We  know  how  to  build  for  the 
body  and  the  head,  the  character  and  heart  must  have 
attention  now.     We  have  learned  something  about  the 
creation  of  wealth  and  the  acquirement  of  knowledge. 
Let  us  study  how  to  diffuse  wealth  and  power  and 
goodness  among  the  people.     Let  us  discover  how  to 
make  everybody  comfortable,  well  off,  intelligent  and 
virtuous.     The  diffusion  of  wealth,  knowledge,  power 
and  virtue  is  the  problem  of  the  twentieth  century- 
justice  and  love,  partnership  and  devotion  are  the  keys. 
The  eighteenth  century  gave  us  material  development ; 
the  nineteenth  has  given  us  intellectual  development; 
let  the  twentieth  give  us  spiritual  development.    From 
the  eighteenth,    power ;    from  the  nineteenth,  knowl- 
edge;  from  the  twentieth,   virtue.     We  have  knowl- 
edge,  wealth  and  power,  let  us  sanctify  them  all  with 
brother  love  that  no  living  creature  may  be  wrongec' 
or  suffer   enslavement,  degradation,  injustice  or  los 
of  rightful  opportunity  forevermore  on  earth.      Th 
eighteenth  century  was  powerful ;  the  nineteenth  has 
been  glorious;  let  us  make  the  twentieth  happy. 


END  OF 
TITLE 


